Road Trip

On Jan 27, after passing my last exam, we (Vierka, Ivan, me) left for Salzburg and Budapest. I have a sweet deal from work: I can spend two nights for free pretty much anywhere in a Marriott Hotel( during a certain period). I would be a fool not to take advantage of it right? So we hired a car from Bestcar. We wanted a Skoda Fabia Junior (i.e. the cheapest car), but they didn't have one so they gave us a better car (a regular Fabia 1.2 liter) for the same price (400CZK/day) :-) Nice!
First we went to Salzburg, I drove all the way, which wasn't too big of a deal since it was mostly highway. It was freezing! when we got there, and lots of snow! The Renaissance in Salzburg sucks compared to the one where I work, but hey, it was for free!;-)
We've spent two days there, walking around,having some beer and taking pictures. I met a friend from a CISV camp in 2002, so that was nice.
The last day we let Vierka drive (which was, ehm, fun:) and went south to see the Alps. We came across a typical Austrian alpine village, went for a walk and stumbled upon a beautiful frozen waterfall...Then it was "only" 6-7 hours driving to Budapest...
The capital of Hungary is well known for a complete lack of orientation signs, and a layout that defies all logic. That means you will get lost if you're driving. 100% sure. And we did too. First we thought it would be easy, we saw the Marriott sign right next to a bridge that we were crossing...but guess what, we got lost anyway:-0 So we went to a fast food place to ask for directions (I think it was Subway), but nobody seemed to speak English! Nemirtem (I don't understand) was the only response we got. But they were helpfull nevertheless, and explained the way through body language (that was a show I tell you!).
So we finally made it to the hotel, rushed to the lobby to check-in, wearing dirty jeans, weird hats, huge backpacks and plastic bags full of food...We did not fit in. There were people in fancy dresses and suits, jewellery everywhere, cameras rolling...apparently some big ball was taking place where all the Hungarian celebrities and politicians showed off the best pieces of their wardrobes. We had a laugh, along with the receptionists:-) But the Hotel was very nice, and had a great view of the Buda district. We did the mandatory sightseeing, had some goulash and beer, and the next day went to the Szechenyi Furdo. That's a pretty nice outside thermal water spa, surrounded by an old building, there are old men playing chess in the water while the snow falls, it was quite nice. After that we had to go home, but it was snowing so hard it took us almost 4 hours to get to Banska Bystrica. We also got lost in Budapest again, actually, the pic on topf of this post was taken when we were lost on the way home, ansd somehow ended up at the Millenium monument, a huge intersection without working traffic lights...fun:-)

All in all, it was a great break from life in Prague, it was starting to get on my nerves...:-)

Check out some of the pictutres we took along the way